
/cTa./ 



UBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap Copyright JS'o 

Shelf.L'2._3i5T'1' 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



TENT OF THE PLAINS 



BY 

SHANNON BIRCH 



Or words of Poc/s, lomi grown old 
In rvine of men's ri'iitrmhrances, 
In vin'a<j<; of Hit; virlioiv years. 



NEW YORK 
E. R. HERRICK & COMPANY 

70 Fifth Avenue 






184?9 



COPTEIGHT, 1898, 

By E. R. IIEEKICK .^ CO. 
New Yokk. 




N0V4«18Sf< 



Wo COPIES RECEIVED. 



V3nJbHr\ (SifiJeMj.S'^ 







I 




Storm of the poefs soul whence comes 
The gentle rain of words. 



TENT OF THE PLAINS, 



Sunsets. 

Or sunsets made of dross and fire. 

Clouds Rugged as an Orator. 

Clouds rugged as an orator, 

Or graced with many a poet's charm. 

Skies. 

Or sunn'd or dark or moon-ed skies. 

Clouds, Their Mystical Moments. 

Or clouds their mystical moments when 
They're incense to the solitary moon. 

Morning-Wealth. 

When morning pours her dandelions 

In the coffers of the wind. 

And softly tells them o'er and o'er. 



4 tent of the plains. 

The Evening Sun. 

How oft the spider's gossamer 
Its silvery pulses gently stir 
Between the sun about to set 
And gleaming sunflowers opposite, 
As low upon the lea. 

Last Sunbeams. 

Last sunbeams when they silver most 
The cloudy peaks, the winding coast 
Of evening. 

Hills of the Air. 

Where ragged crows recruit their troop 
And over hills and hollows swoop, 
That never were except in air. 

All Unrecorded Sounds. 

All unrecorded sounds that stir 
Where breaks the voice of pebbly rills. 

The Seasons. 

Or autumn's whistling skies, or summer's 
calm. 



tent of the plains. 5 

Break o' Day Skies. 

Or break o' day skies, or autumn-tinted 
earth. 

To Fill the Store of Lusty Winter. 

When north winds garner ripened leaves, 
To fill the store of lusty winter. 

Distant Woods. 

Or wreaths of distant woods when turned 
The dome of wide horizons round. 

Earth and Sky. 

Or earth that's leveled to the foot, 
Or sky that's rounded to the eye. 

The Summer Brook. 

Or where the summer brook does lay 
Against cool sands her dimpled cheeks. 

Treasures of the Mold. 

All the treasures of the mold. 
All the mintage of the wold, 
Coin-ed into dandelions. 



6 tent of the plains. 

Spring. 

Spring with blossoms in her hair 
And fragrance in her sighs. 

The Lark. 

The tremor of the lark's song where he sings. 
The flutter of his pinions where alights. 

The Mole. 

The winding galleries, the long, 
Low dungeons of the mole. 

When Evening Falls. 

When evening falls before the stars, 
And ebbing light does fill the moat 
Of silent, battlemented night. 

Who Shall Count the Yellow Gold? 

Who shall count the yellow gold 
Where the dandelions hold 
Out their largess on the heather. 



tent of the plains. j 

And There Was Such a Hush. 

. . . And there was such 
A hush and meaning in the sky as might 
Have been when dim Judea's vales begot 
A star. 

A Wind. 

Or wind that drives afar and nigh 

The white-maned clouds throughout the sky, 

The white-maned breakers through the sea. 

Evening. 

When attendant evening sets the casque of 

night 
So that the sun may die in equipage 
And that he ruled see him that ruled look 

through 
His visor-bars and bidding 'dieu die in 
Red leisure, like a god. 

The Storm. 

When low, black clouds, as iron-clads, 
Shoot round blasts of white clouds amain, 
With bursts of lightning, countless rain, 
And all their weltering foment adds. 



5 TENT OF THE PLAINS. 

Sooth. 

A startled bell, the rasping swell 

Of katydid o'er height and dell; 

All leafy legions lapping up 

The vital air, to hear them sup 

Is sleepiness, to hear them cup 

The drinky air is sooth to me; 

Sooth all the blind-night's plaintive plea; 

Sooth all its deep monotony. 

The Morning Sun. 

The morning sun when offering fire 
Upon the summit of the clouds. 

The Airy Cargo. 

The airy cargo of a storm. 

The Sun's Vast Head-Light. 

The sun's vast head-light where it burns. 

The Noon-Day Sun. 

The sun stayed at the gates of noon. 



tent of the plains. 9 

The Overflowing Sky. 

Or when the sky o'erflows with cooHng 
clouds. 

The New Moon's Tide. 

Or when the new moon's tide does flood 
The passage of the milky-way. 

Upon the Night's Dim Portico. 

The new moon's lamp while burning low 
Upon the night's dim portico. 

The Poet, the Painter and the Sculptor. 

A living word that paints a passing cloud, 
A hand that nature's brightest moments 

makes 
Breathe out from canvas, or from marble 

spring 
Perennial. 

Storm-Clouds. 

When storm-clouds smite the wavering sky. 

The Crown of Night. 

The crown of night, the milky-way. 



10 tent of the plains. 

Effulgence. 

When some heroic cloud does bind 
The glowing sun upon his brow. 

When Drinks the Moon. 

. . . Or when the moon does drink 
At fountains of swift-running clouds. 

Evening-Crown 

. . . Or when red evening's barb'ric 

crow^n 
Does one pure jewel hold, the pearly moon. 

Dusk. 

When drown-ed evening's golden hair 
Is floating to the shores of night. 

The New^ Moon's Drinking Horn. 

When high the new moon's drinking horn. 

The Heavens. 

. . . Or when the heavens move in 

clouds. 
When flying skies o'erfill the firmament. 



TENT OF THE PLAINS. II 

The Chaff of Winnowed Rain. 

Or clouds, the chaff of winnowed rain. 

Crescent. 

Or when 's half-op'd the moon that seems 
A weary sleeper's lids. 

Galileean Miracle. 

. . Or Galileean miracle 
That fills the milky-way with gleaming stars. 

Phylacteries. 

Or Jacob-like at evening the sun 
Puts on the west a mantle girt around 
With indescribable phylacteries. 

Lances of the Rain. 

Or serried lances of the rain. 

The Rain's Low Fifes. 

The rain's low fifes that follow fitfully 
The shattering trumpets of the storm. 

Morning Light. 

Where interstitial clouds and morning Ught 
Alternate rise. 



12 tent of the plains. 

Stars. 

And stars that all innumer'bly people the 
Illimitable heavens' farthest strand 
Their amaranthine ranks ascend unto. 

In Fanes of Evening. 

In fanes of ev'ning voices of the wind 
Declaiming auguries. 

Storm-Shorn. 

Or yet December's icy trowel 

That oft twangs in the wrenching wind. 

That Follow the Rain. 

And saffron, yellow, red and blue and pearl, 
And gold and silver, mark the sunset sky; 
And all the east its tearful brow a bow 
Does span, a bow that in the air does hang 
As some irradiating nimbus 'round 
The brow of some yet supernatural One 
'Mong saints devotional in pictures old. 

Gray-Armored Clouds. 

Gray-armored clouds caught on the shield 
O' th' knightly moon. 



tent of the plains. i3 

The Sower. 

When spring with swinging pace sows leaf 
and bloom. 

Golden Censers. 

Where daisies blow, each dandehon 
Swings golden censers in the wind. 

April. 

Or skies of April, purple-crowned. 
Or April-meadows robed in emerald. 

The Rains. 

. . . When rains bewray 
The stirring of the vocal bush, 
The leaping of the shotted pool. 

The Countless Fetters of the Rain. 

Or rolling storm clouds as they strain 
The countless fetters of the rain. 

The Sky and the Sun. 

And when the sky's Sahara-Hke, and clouds 
Upon it are but oases and in 
Such oases, their vapory wells, the sun's 
Face for a moment 's dipp'd. 



14 tent of the plains. 

Robin Red-Breast. 

And when the sky 's the color of his breast, 
And when are clouds the color of his wings. 
The robin chants his stately hymn. 

Sun and Golden-Rod. 

When evening sun and golden-rod 
Get one dye from some larger source. 

The Harvest of the Rain. 

The lightning's sickle flashing through 
Broad fields of ripened rain. 

The Mirror of the Soul. 

Or nature but a breath upon 
The mirror of the soul. 

Night Upon the Banks of Evening. 

When night upon the bank does stand 
Of evening's yellow waters. 

Autumn. 

When autumn from dim atmospheres 
Draws forth the rich, the ruddy sun. 



tent of the plains. 1 5 

Hours of Midnight. 

Or dappled fields of moonlight where 
The quiet hours of midnight lie. 



Indian Summer Day. 

The ofifspring of a pale sky lazily half 

In forest, half in field, a day and in 

Whose hair and down whose hem the painted 

leaves 
Of autumn wind. 



September. 



Songs of autumn in the breeze, 
Veins of wild bees in the air. 



Light. 



Light, incubation of the moon; 
Night frowning on the mellow 
Sight; midnight; half-blind noon; 
Height; black; white; flame, and yellow. 



l6 TENT OF THE PLAINS. 

Migration. 

And when some autumn cloud of blackbirds 

bursts 
And on in ebon freshet swiftly flows, 
Down sheep-trod hills and through melo- 
dious groves. 

Unfathomed Deeps. 

Or moon, the plummet of unfathomed deeps. 

Day-God. 



In purple trappings of the morn 
flame. 



The day-god strides and strokes his beard of 



Cup-Bearers. 

When clouds, cup-bearers of the weary sun, 
Approach with him his resting place. 

Depths. 

Of purple hues, of golden dyes. 
Depths within vSeptember skies. 



tent of the plains. i7 

Day and Night. 

When first by day the sun draws light 
From out his sparkHng well, when night, 
That day does follow, on has rolled 
His inky floods and, weary, tolled 
His last faint buoys that tongue the dark 
Beside the channels that demark 
The outward currents shadowy sleep 
Conveys his specious barks on deep 
Into the quiet caves of slumber. 

Sounds of Morn. 

When shrill the busy sounds of morn. 
Their breezy tempest fills the air. 

Clouds of Summer. 

Aye, words to paint the sky with, let them be 
As broke and yesty as the clouds of summer. 

The Soul and the Eye. 

All delightful things that lie 
In the soul or on the eye. 

Flotsam. 

Slow-bubbling clouds that stars cast up. 



l8 TENT OF THE PLAINS. 

The Sombre Canvas of the Skies. 

. . . Or stars that moth-like pierce 
The sombre canvas of the skies. 



Wild Moon. 

Wild moon that rides 
Upon the tides 
Of ounding clouds. 

One Pale Star in the Sky. 

The gleaming moon's share where it turns 
Deep, fallow clouds upon that burns 
One pale star in the sky. 

The Sky's Warm Banks. 

The sky's warm banks o'errun with stars. 

The Day When Westward Walks. 

. . . When day, 

Empurpled clouds upon her, westward walks, 

The sun, her symbol, in her hand. 



tent of the plains. i9 

Ursa, Mighty Sloth. 

. . . Or ursa, mighty sloth, 

That creeps the circuit of the north around. 

The Nether Shores of Night. 

Stars, Hghts upon the nether shores of night. 

Sun, Moon and Stars. 

The moon at zenith, purple-rimm'd, 
Red-crowned the level sun, or brimm'd 
On heaven's swelling cup bright stars 
That rise and sparkle there; that mars 
These every darkling cloud. 

The Peaceful Skies of Evening. 

Or thunderbolts when beaten to 

The golden shares that furrow through 

The peaceful skies of evening. 

Arrows of the Snow. 

The wavering arrows of the snow. 



20 tent of the plains. 

Fury. 

Or when some furious storm and down 
Whose beard doth run swift rain. 

Night and Noon. 

. . . Or when the moon's 
Broad signet 's set upon the scroll of night. 
Or noon's effulgent manual 's set upon 
The mid-day sky's meridian. 

A Gentle Shepherdess. 

The moon, the gentle shepherdess that drives 
Her countless stars asky. 

The Wan Moon. 

Or when the wan moon 's bent upon 
The glowing beauty of the sun 
Dispensing day to nether worlds. 

Sheltering Clouds. 

Or sheltering clouds of such behoof 
That fiery sunbeams through such roof 
Pierce not the earth. 



tent of the plains. 21 

Bequest. 

Or yet when dying day bequeaths 

To evening gold, with diamond greaves 

A gHttering mail to sable night. 

The Young Moon, David-Like. 

. . . Or when 

Against some threatening cloud, Goliath- 
strong, 

The young, fair moon, all David-like doth 
move 

The livid circle of his whirling sling 

Calmly within. 

Mosaics. 

And when inlaid with flashing star, the sky, 
With glowing planet and with lucent moon. 

Freedom. 

When first the bright, the morning ray, 

A golden key, unlocks the castles of 

The night and does each blinded captive 

there 
Set free. 



22 tent of the plains. 

Autumn Glades. 

Or yet when autumn's rusty blade 
In ragged windrows down some glade 
Does summer grasses sweep, the while 
The whistling autumn winds do pile 
Them up in scattered heaps, to stay 
The snow-bird on his twittering way, 
The snow upon their blades that curl 
Into a thousand cups and twirl 
Upon a thousand stems. 



Peace. 



Stars yelloweth the sky, and the moon ^s 
rimm'd 

In yellow; frogs that never weary of 

Their liquid flutes; low clouds that blackly 
wash 

The shoals of their white breakers; winds 
that pause 

Upon the brow and whisper to the ear 

Of spring, and from the wasting soul blow- 
wide 

Its perturbation. 



tent of the plains. 23 

The Sun When Last He Looks. 

. . . Boabdil when he turned 
To see the last time lov'd Granada there 
From lofty Alpujarras' Range, so looks 
From dim horizons long the sun the last 
Time on some fair day that dominion wide 
There absolute, save clouds, he wielded o'er. 

Fields and Sky. 

The living fields, the pictured sky. 

Flocks. 

Or clouds in summer flocks that roam, 
Or ruminating, quiet lie. 

Children That Ride at Play. 

Children that ride at play in summer frocks, 
See-saw-ing, no more bend the fibred pine 
Than 's bent a narrow, cloudy shaft across 
The sky; one end immerse the swelling 

springs 
Of sunrise, one the ripened times the sun 
Does drop to mellow rest. 



24 tent of the plains. 

Feet of the Rain. 

The rain's feet answering the will 
Of wild or of melodious winds. 

Purple Night. 

When purple night does rise and scorn 
The red decrees of evening. 

Far and Low. 

Or when the west is yellower 
Than worded beams of poesy. 
Or when the sun does lower lie 
Than poet's tape may ever stir. 

Shadows. 

Or shadows in one necromance, 

One irresistible address, 

Leagued with some poet's connivance 

To bring the storm with lance, and dress 

Of hurried black. 

Shoreless Clouds. 

All shoreless clouds that ever sailed. 



tent of the plains. 2$ 

The World Come to Evening. 

And the cloud-belted world come to the red 
Outposts of evening with overfull 
A gross and burly onwardness. 

The Dying Sun. 

The dying sun his feeble beams 
That seek the changed and futile sky. 

Premonition. 

. . . And in 

The west an ominous storm-hd overlies 
The sun, and in the east the head of Thor, 
Cloud-born, upzenith-ed, curl'd in black 

winds; 
And in the air the brood of absent suns, 
And on the heart a chill commensurate, 
That '11 soften in the morning rain of suns 
And tuneful birds. 

Slumber. 

When night does soothe the poppied earth. 

Day-Dreaming. 

The moon, day-dreaming in the sky. 



26 tent of the plains. 

The Golden Lands of Evening. 

. . . Across the highway of 
The winds, beyond the region of the clouds, 
The golden lands of evening lie, their gates 
Are to the mortal eye observant, and 
More beautiful than aught beside the blooms 
Within, that shed no lustre whilst the soul 
Seeks nothing from eternity. 

The Spreading Sky. 

. . . Or where does lie 

The deep pool of the spreading sky, 

Translucent to its starry bed. 

The Halls of Darkness. 

. . . Or ever as 

The low, dull moon unlighted through 
The darkened caves of night into 
The halls of darkness, dimly goes. 

The Moon's Light. 

The moon's light and the cloudy bight 
This shines on, blue amid the lochs 
Of mighty headlands mighty rocks 
Whose gray foundations. 



tent of the plains. 2j 

When Tales of Tender Choice are Told. 

When day lifts high his sun-crowned head, 
When night in mists its charioted, 
When morn awakes or evening sleeps, 
Each star appointed vigil keeps, 
When snows enpierce or blossoms fold, 
And every tale untold is told 
Of tender choice. 

The Alpine Sky. 

When stars by night the Alpine sky 
Climb, cloudy precipices nigh 
Pass giddily, or cloudy vales 
Traverse that quiet in the pales 
Of deep cloud-gorges lie. 

Mother of Dim-Shining Hours. 

The moon, the mother of dim-shining hours. 



Dewy Beads. 

Dewy beads the morn hath run 
Upon cobwebs finest spun. 



28 tent of the plains. 

The Glowing Sun. 

Or when the breast of morning in 
The glowing sun first dimly stirs. 

Unseen, Mighty Hosts. 

When unseen, mighty hosts of night, each 

one 
Bears high a talismanic lamp that is 
A star. 

The Halls of Evening. 

Or antique sunshine filling up 
The stately halls of evening. 

The Seasons Linked in Changeful Dance. 

The seasons linked in changeful dance 
Before the sombre year, the glance 
The passing sun does downward bend 
In beams, or yet does upward send 
In mourning, tearful showers. 

The Balmy Night. 

Or tearful star of evening 

When last does view the balmy night. 



tent of the plains. 29 

The Pencil of the Moon. 

The pencil of the moon when clouds 
Bedeck the canvas of the skies. 

Marriage of the Sea and Sky. 

See in some tender floweret's eye 
Marriage of the sea and sky. 

Dim Autumn's Gold. 

Dim autumn's gold in leafy crucibles. 

Seen and Unseen. 

Or peaks of clouds past the horizon borne, 
Or clouds aloft in ponderous seeming. 

With Careless Brush. 

. . . The sun 

The clouds that paints with ever careless 
brush. 

Afloat. 

. . . Or moon 

In cloudy archipelagoes afloat. 



30 TEXT OF THE PLAINS. 

A Mother and Her Child. 

Seem in the stilly atmosphere of night, 
The balmy moon and planet nearest her 
Some mother and her child in quiet paths 
Of summer time. 

Evening Clouds. 

When westward-moving clouds at evening 

drive 
Their hot shares through long leagues of 

yellow light. 

The Young Moon Curled in Evening Clouds. 

The young moon curled in evening clouds, 
As mermaid in a hollow sea. 

A Traveler. 

Or when the sun in splendor goes 
Across the heaven's blue plateaus. 

A Threshing-Floor. 

When night from all the west-sky winnows 

light, 
And in such threshing-floor leaves only stars. 



tent of the plains. 3i 

Returned. 

. . . And when the sun the gates 
Of evening approaches, come forth clouds 
To welcome him, in robes as white as worn 
Among the throng that went forth bearing 

palms 
Upon a time far spent in Galilee. 

Compasses. 

Or compasses that circumscribe 
Dim haloes for the moon. 

In Bright Procession of the Stars, 

Or when the midnight moon obscurely walks 
In cloudy paths, or cloudless marches in 
The bright procession of the stars. 

Counter-Laws. 

All counter-laws of sun and rain. 

A Summer Calm. 

Or sun and moon within one sky that lend 
A summer calm to every path that winds 
Upon the earth. 



^2 TENT OF THE PLAINS. 

To Drink at Fountains of the Rain. 

When clouds to drink at fountains of the rain 
Pass by. 

Victorious Night. 

When night the sun has overthrown, 
Torn day's bright banner from the sky, 
And set each sleepless star on high, 
Darkness and silence by his throne. 

Captivity. 

The chained moon's beaten path within 
The circuit of a purple cloud. 

Regality. 

Or summer clouds in purple drest 
By regal moons they wait upon. 

All Light Disseminate. 

At evening when in golden cataracts 
Pours out into the sun's abyss all light 
Disseminate before in mellow airs 
Throughout the universe. 



tent of the plains. 33 

Young Evening. 

When calmly followed by his cloudy flocks 
Recedes young evening, quiet shepherd, with 
His crook, not changed from any crescent 

that 
Has been, upon his shoulder lightly swung. 

Shorn. 

. . . Shorn of its glow of moon and stars, 
The sky blown in wide drifts of barren clouds. 

Sunset-Isles. 

The sunset's purple isles whose shores 
In silver breakers flash. 

Threads of Rain. 

Clouds held by feeble threads of rain. 

The Fairest Skies. 

Clouds clothe themselves in beauty that the 

sun 
May look his last upon the fairest sky, 
The fairest in the panoply of day. 



34 tent of the plains. 

Bannered Clouds. 

Or bannered clouds before the wind. 

Autumn Suns. 

When golden clouds sun autumn skies, 
And yellow sun-flowers autumn glades.. 

Messages of Night. 

. . . At evening cloudy isles 
Wherein is nothing, and does cross 
Them but the evening wind that bears 
The melancholy messages 
Of night. 

Chariots of the Storm. 

When clouds are coursers drawing forth 
The blinding chariots of the storm. 

Silence. 

Some quiet pool unfretted by a breeze, 
Wherein the heavens coolly lie, wherein 
The tree-tops never make the sound of leaves. 
And stirring stir not. 



tent of the plains. 35 

Praise. 

Or leaves that praise the tuneful wind. 

Fear. 

When every hasty cloud does make 
A mantle for the flying night. 

The Place of the Snow. 

Artificers of winter skies. 

Each snowflake of immense design. 

Benedictions. 

Ascetic skies endowing earth 
With benedictions of the snow. 

All Powers of Light. 

All powers of light that fall before 
The lifting of the crown of night. 

Impotence. 

Moons impotent that, waning, drop 
The swelling tempest's headlong rein. 



36 tent of the plains. 

Anchoring Winds. 

Wild storms that strain their anchoring 

winds 
To sweep the channels of the air. 

Far in the Jungles of the Rain. 

Or muttering thunder when 't is heard 
Far in the jungles of the rain. 

Morning. 

When day's wide-searching eye looks first 
abroad. 

In Winter Trance, in Springtime Rivulet. 

Or waters where they lie in winter trance. 
Or sing in springtime rivulet. 

Pillage. 

When hordes of snow from out the north's 
Sacked every sunniest atmosphere. 

Adoration. 

When morning first adores the sky. 
Then blesses all the earth. 



tent of the plains. 2)7 

God. 

The Hand that sows stars every night 
The selfsame way. 

When First Looks Forth. 

When first looks forth upon the morn 
The sun, refreshed, from gates of night. 

The Harvests of the Evening Sky. 

Or gleaming crescent tempered to 
The harvests of the evening sky. 

Twilight. 

Or ruddy bond, the last afBxed 
'Tween sun and evening's gentle star. 

The Wind's Pace. 

The wind's pace gustily keeping the feet 
O' th' rain. 

Evening Star. 

Or trembling star of dewy eve, 
The last drop in the cup of day. 



38 tent of the plains. 

The Winds of Night; the Winds of Morn. 

Or winds when they go moaning through 
The caves of night, or when they brew 
Yet bhthe on meads the morning dew. 

Shades of Night. 

When swards of evening lengthen more 
Than webs of grain that weavers throw. 

The Sky. 

. . . Or clouds of summer grots 
And palaces, that lute and trumpet still 
Would thread were they for sylvan lovers 

buiU, 
Or wrought for kings bred on the Euphrates. 

Spring Winds. 

The spring winds as they northward go 
To lock the prisons of the snow. 

Night-Fall. 

The robin at his vocal task, 

The thresher's song, the thresher's flail, 

The thresher in his paUid mask. 



tent of the plains. 39 

When Evening Calls. 

When evening calls funereal night 
To drape the halls of dying day. 

Night's Shadowy Scythe. 

. . . Night's shadowy scythe 
That reaps the sunshine where it falls. 

Storm and Calm. 

. . . The sun in every cloudy scroll, 
Commanding storm or calm to rule the hour. 

When All the Gates of Darkness. 

When all the gates of darkness fall 
And morning's hosts first enter in. 

Clouds Dropping Rain. 

Or clouds fire-shod, or dropping rain. 

Re-iteration. 

The stars are but a single sheaf, 
Their golden tropics have one way, 
And every life has the same day 
And every season the same leaf. 



40 tent of the plains. 

Praise. 

June-blown meads their melody, 
Sweetest singers, oldest psalms. 
Summer clouds do verily 
Push their kind and skip as lambs. 

Moons of Summer. 

When moons of summer card each cloudy 

fleece. 
And lay them for the silent feet of morn. 

The New Moon's Ark. 

When first the new moon's ark is found 
Beside the vallies of the night. 

''Unto the Sea How Long a Way." 

'The day is born," do all birds sing, 

Larks lead the lay. 

"The day is dying," weep the rains, 

The rains that say : 

"Unto the sea how long a way." 

Storm-Clouds. 

Wild beckoners of rain, that snare upon 
The shores of night the fleeting ray. 



tent of the plains. 4i 

On Summer Days. 

. . . Or when 

On summer days do cloudy pilots steer 
The winds the vast, bewildering sources of 
The sky across. 

Unnumbered Cables of the Rain. 

When through unnumbered cables of the 

rain 
Flow peaceful messages of growth unto 
The earth. 

When Clouds O'ersweep. 

When clouds o'ersweep the trackless scene 
And slay the sun upon his heights 
With multitudinous shafts of snow. 

TtiE Poet. 

. . . Take in the memory 
Some giant scene, ajid fix upon 't 
True signet of most mem'rable words. 

Calm Night. 

Calm night that only wavers in 
The moving of eternal stars. 



42 tent of the plains. 

Night. 

. . . When speech is hushed and wishes 

all 
Unspoken, when the heart has a full sense 
That something tender is in all the dim, 
Somnolent worlds, that the full, open day 
Is shorn of, something dreamed, half-wake- 
ful to 
The rain of life. 

The Lightning's Fitful Flashes. 

The lightning's fitful flashes on 
The secret outposts of the night. 

Skies That Smile. 

Skies that smile and skies that weep, 
Blooms that paint the summer fields. 

A Morning Pageantry. 

. . . And wdien 

The morning sun and by a thousand clouds 
Is drawn, they dappled palfreys every one. 
With blazoned liveries of gold and girths 
Of blue. 



tent of the plains. 43 

Spectral Evening. 

Or spectral evening while but haunts 
The deep abysses of the night. 

Disclosures. 

The beautiful disclosures of the morn, 
And all things hidden in the night, fair 

moons. 
And stars, and every living creature that 
Takes of the delicate sustenance of life; 
The earth itself till 't fall and be consumed 
By th' torches of oblivion. 

What Time the Good Star, Regulus. 

. . . What time the good star, Regulus, 
Sinks early in the west, with Jupiter, 
Aswing upon night's foremast; fireflies spell 
In lighter syllables a silence in 
The marshes ; frogs subdue the throbbing air 
With patient monotones; all sounds cease 

'round 
The midnight; silence steals within the gates 
Of sleep shut out from torturing sense and 

ills 
Of hurrying suns. 



44 tent of the plains. 

Moonlight. 

When low the moon amid the poplars hangs. 
An unreal fruit of neither light nor dark. 

Or Many a Cloud. 

. . . Or many a cloud 

That does the reeking pleasure of the rain 

That the to-morrow's sunshine may be 

wrought 
'Round cooler shades, and evening shadows 

dim 
May be attendants on the passing moon. 

The Coasts of Morning. 

Across the coasts of morning view 
Fair Venus lead the glowing ray. 

When Moves the Wind. 

When moves the wind through sounding 

pines 
Or when does wail o'er heaving meadows. 

Awake. 

When morning from her vision sweeps. 
The dusky potions of the night. 



tent of the plains. 45 

*Where Mighty Heights. 

Where mighty heights are sentineled 
Aloft with many an ancient pine. 

Peace. 

Tumults precipitous be, be sheeting storm 
Till wreckful arrogance shall swell to peace ; 
Peace, truest order of the gods. 

Repose. 

When late the sun does seek repose 
At every gateway of the night. 

Love's Humid Mines. 

Love's humid mines that yield the soothing 
tear. 



Venus. 



When with no halo every star shines forth 
But Venus whose source in deep, foamy 

caves 
Gives her first knowledge of the wooing rain, 
Exhalent brow, and even luminous hems. 



46 tent of the plains. 

Upon the Pinnacles of Darkness. 

Upon the pinnacles of darkness stars 

To guide the world into the ports of morn. 



Fate and Chance. 

Little leaf-springing things that click 

The latch-ed air and feebly swing 

Aside lest the unwarning sting 

Of death by sharpened chance shall prick 

The tender fabrics of their lives, 

Lest some eventful crush shall wick 

The firefly's little torch that strives 

To light a bigger darkness thick 

Beyond the presence of the moon. 

Each little glitter hath its noon. 

Each little insect hath its day. 

Fate, chance, still wavering, have their way. 



Flocks of Wild-Fowl. 

. . . Where flocks of wild-fowl take in air 
The shimmer of broad waters whence they 
come. 



tent of the plains. 47 

The Cares of Men. 

They are as all the clouds that fill 
A summer day, that passing leave 
The sunshine unabated. 

When Strikes the Hour. 

Some lone bird answering its own plaint, 

some 
Unfruitful years, some tear-drenched cheek, 

are all 
Forgot when strikes the hour of mastery. 

There Is No Death. 

. . . There is no death; 

Else clods would cease their alchemy, and 

from 
The poet's brow would blow th' enchantment 
. that's 
In excess of mortality. 



NOV 4 ma 



